126 PROTECTION OF AFFORESTED AREAS 



It feeds on his young grain crops as they come up, 

 on his young new grass areas, and in many parts 

 of the country ruins the rough grazing areas, these 

 tracts being so overrun by this animal that stock 

 cannot live upon them. 



This is a heavy indictment against the rabbit, 

 but it will be corroborated by every forester and 

 farmer in the country. 



So far as forestry is concerned, the rabbit must 

 be exterminated on the areas devoted to the com- 

 mercial aspect of this question. But something 

 more than this will be required. Up to now it has 

 been imperative that before a young plantation has 

 been formed the area should be fenced and netted 

 against the rabbit, thus materially adding to the 

 cost of formation and throwing an unjust burden, 

 financially, on the plantation. Even if a small 

 proprietor cleared the rabbits off his own land, 

 he has still had to fence his plantations against 

 the rabbits kept up by his neighbours. For, prob- 

 ably owing to their great breeding capacity, 

 the rabbit is endowed with a remarkable flair for 

 " clean," i.e. rabbit-denuded ground, and will 

 quickly take possession of it. Females carrying 

 young are particularly addicted to searching out 

 areas of this nature to place their offspring in. Young 

 rabbits, too, are a source of extreme trouble. They 

 are very small when they first commence to move 

 about, and can get through ordinary-sized mesh 

 netting protecting a plantation. They rapidly in- 

 crease in size, and so become too big to get out, 

 and thus start colonies of rabbits inside. For this 



